The Shipment
'' |image= |series= |production=40358-059/307 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Chris Black and Brent V. Friedman |director= David Straiton |imdbref=tt0572258 |guests=John Cothran, Jr. as Gralik Durr, Randy Oglesby as Degra, Steven Culp as Major Hayes, John Eddins as Xindi-Reptilian |previous_production=Exile |next_production=Twilight |episode=ENT S03E07 |airdate=29 October 2003 |previous_release=Exile |next_release=Twilight |story_date(s)=Unknown (2153) |previous_story=Exile |next_story=Twilight }} =Summary= At the Xindi Council, Degra reports that the weapon should be ready in a matter of weeks. On Enterprise, the coordinates provided by Tarquin (in Exile) lead to a planet, and the crew decide to hide the ship while a shuttlecraft manned by Captain Archer, Lieutenant Reed and Major Hayes approaches it. Evading detection, they land and enter a Xindi settlement, where they find a great quantity of kemocite being refined. They then observe Gralik Durr and two associates discussing the deal they have to mine the kemocite for Degra. The away team then beams up a canister of kemocite for analysis, and then follow Gralik back to his home, where they confront him. T'Pol's analysis shows that the Xindi probe which attacked Earth (in The Expanse) contained kemocite. Archer then tells Gralik that Degra will use the kemocite to build a weapon, but the Arboreal denies any knowledge of the plan. Back on Enterprise, Commander Tucker also learns that the kemocite is the key to Reptilian rifle technology. Archer approves his idea to reverse engineer a rifle, but Tucker unknowingly triggers a self-destruct sequence and the weapon is beamed into space. Archer then decides not to destroy the kemocite mining complex as he doesn't want the Xindi to think of them as aggressors. On the planet, Gralik explains that Degra told him that the kemocite was for research, and explains how the Avian race were assumed to be made extinct in the Xindi Civil War. A Reptilian shuttle arrives early, carrying Degra, to collect the final shipment of kemocite. Gralik takes the away team to a cave that will protect them from scans, but they are soon attacked by robotic drones sent by the Reptilians. When Gralik returns home, he is confronted by Degra, who reveals the true purpose of the kemocite, to build a weapon to destroy a ruthless alien species. T'Pol in the meantime has modified the canister of kemocite so that the ship can track it. Archer manages to sneak it aboard the shuttle and after the Reptilians leave, Archer thanks Gralik for his trust and help. =Errors and Explanations= Nit Central # Sparrow47 on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 7:42 pm: So, wait, we definitely know the Xindi homeworld was destroyed (unless B&B have a major trick up their sleeves)... wasn't the whole point that Earth was supposed to blow up the Xindi homeworld in 400 years? If it's already toast, how is that supposed to work? How is humanity expected to wipe the Xindi out when they're scattered all over the Expanse? This doesn't seem well thought out. SlinkyJ on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 9:03 pm: Maybe I'm not if I have been paying attention. Is it the Xindi homeworld, or all of the Xindi? Meaning, all of them, thru-out the Exspanse? I too, am confused about that. And I was thinking though, what if that trick up the sleeve is that even thought they were told that the humans would distroy them in 400 years, or their planet, maybe the humans 400 years from now, goes back in time, and destroys the Xindi planet about a hundred years ago? SeniramUK 11:46, November 16, 2018 (UTC) Perhaps the Xindi were – falsly - told by the sphere builders that, because of the humans, they would need to fall back to their NEW homeworld, only for THAT to be destroyed! # Phlox's radiation technique for dealing with the rifle slugs gets poo-poohed by Trip. Why? If the Reptilians board through the docking ports, just set up a bunch of emitters near the ports, and if the Xindi show up, evacuate the crew and fire away. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 2:37 pm: I thought about that myself. I forgot to include it as a nit, though. Then again, if they could do that, they could just go all out and install high-powered phase emitters or other powerful weapons to be operated remotely in areas susceptible to boarding. # LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 10:03 pm: T’Pol says in the opening scene of Act 1 that there were no sensors, satellites, Xindi ships or any defensive systems to detect or defend enemy vessels approaching the Xindi Sloth planet. Why is this? One could argue that it’s because the facility is a private one, rather than one that is militarized, but shouldn’t the Xindi militarize the facilities that they need for their weapons? At the very least, shouldn’t they patrol the planets responsible for the very important materials for their weapons, or at least maintain surveillance of them? Or do they just not care about where they get their kemocite, or the reliability of the supply? Kazeite on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 5:35 am: This whole 'hiding behind the moon' stuff was rather weird, since we were shown Enterprise beside the moon, not behind it, with clear line of sight to the planet. I didn't though that lack of any security on the facility was weird, but now that Luigi mentioned it, I agree it's kinda strange... unless there are no Klingon marauders nearby :) Also, either this moon and planet was rather small, or previously estabilished transporter range (10.000 km) is incorrect. Maybe it has better range when transporting inorganic matter? (shrugs) elwood on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 9:39 am: Wow, what a well thought out undercover mission, huh? They park Enterprise behind...oh sorry, BESIDES the moon. Then they use a shuttle and "look like a meteor" when landing. Yeah right. No body on the planet seeing a meteor landing close to their factory would mind. So there is that factory with NO security at all. They use the transporter and communications from the surface to behind oh sorry, besides the moon. IF they really were behind it, NO TRANSPORTING OR COMMUNICATING THROUGH THE MOON, NO SIR! Darth Sarcasm on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 10:28 am: Why does everyone keep saying Enterprise was beside the moon? Sure, from the camera's vantage point, we could see Enterprise and the planet... that doesn't mean there was direct line of sight between the two. How many instances have we seen a person hiding behind a pillar (or some other obstacle) as another person approaches... yet the two characters never see each other? Influx on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 12:44 pm: I can see where the Enterprise could effectively be beside the moon, close enough to it not to be detected but far enough to "peek around the corner" as it were. # When T’Pol suggest to Trip in Act 3 to test the Xindi rifle in a more suitable environment, Trip says they don’t have time to find a deserted asteroid. Maybe, but they could’ve rigged up a podium on which to mount the rifle and fire it remotely, in order to protect against the radiation and particle disbursement that T’Pol mentioned, much as Geordi did with the Romulan facsimile rifle in The Mind's Eye (TNG). Instead, Trip fires it himself. Perhaps it is designed to be incapably of remote firing. # Trip also mentions to T’Pol in this scene that the Xindi took out “half their security force” when they boarded the Enterprise in Rajiin. The boarding party in that episode took out three MACOs and three of Reed’s men. Six men is “half their security force”? The Enterprise only has twelve people for security? We’ve seen at least six MACOs alone on the show. Does Reed have only five men under his command? Josh M on Sunday, October 31, 2004 - 11:50 pm: I think Trip was just making the point that the Reptilians had little trouble fighting past Enterprise's security. LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 9:36 am: I don't see what this has to do with my point. My point is the number of personnel that Trip attributes to security. Josh M on Monday, January 17, 2005 - 3:45 am: I was trying to point out that Trip probably wasn't being literal. By saying that the Reptilians took out "half of Enterprise's security, he was just trying to point out that they had little trouble dealing with Enterprise's resistance. SeniramUK 11:46, November 16, 2018 (UTC) 1: Even with the MACOs on board, Enterprise has a small crew on board. 2: Additional security people may have been taken out off screen. # Trip beams the Xindi rifle into space. But why not just keep it as energy in the pattern buffer until they figure out how to deactivate the overload sequence? Sparrow47 on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 10:51 pm: Well, since this isn't as sophisticated a transporter, perhaps they can't do that? Have they ever tried this before? I can't remember… LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 2:37 pm: I don’t think the level of sophistication should matter. The transporter converts matter into energy. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be able to keep that energy in the buffer, and if it has to rematerialize it, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be able to rematerialize it as a big slag of resequenced steak, or a big glob of silly putty. Sparrow47 on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 7:31 pm: Well, I think the level of sophistication might matter. The transporter might not be able to store the energy pattern for a long period of time. As for rematerializing the rifle as a steak, I'm not sure how that follows. I'm sure they could have rematerialized the gun in a more or less "random" configuration, where it's molecules were scattered willy-nilly in no actual pattern, but I'm not sure they could change it into a steak. Also, I think that the relative newness of the transporter might affect your idea in a more striking way- someone's got to think that idea up before they can do it, and it may be that no one's had that brain flash yet.Captain Bryce on Monday, November 03, 2003 - 9:45 am: This is a thought I had, regarding that issue of keeping the rifle in the transporter buffer until they could figure out how to stop the overload: There simply wasn't time. The countdown display on the rifle was basically at zero when Trip energized the transporter. A couple of seconds later, it exploded. Ergo, even if they could have figured out how to deactivate the rifle, they probably wouldn't have been able to do it in time to be any good. # When Archer is running toward the Xindi shuttle in Act 4, we see the boarding platform lowering. Did he somehow get it to do this? If so, how? Sparrow47 on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 10:51 pm: I thought that maybe the platform was being lowered in anticipation of Degra and co.'s boarding. Certainly, they didn't seem to find it amiss that the platform was down while they were talking to Gralik. # Influx on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 12:44 pm: Don't they have an emergency airlock that they could have shoved the rifle into? (and that was a lot closer to sickbay). LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 2:37 pm: The weren’t in sickbay. They were in Engineering. I get the impression that Engineering is usually deep within the ship, because that’s where the Main Warp Reactor is. Perhaps the transporter is indeed near it, to allow for short trips when transporting materials and equipment aboard that Engineering needs. Obi-Juan on Sunday, November 02, 2003 - 7:57 pm: Oh, it was much worse than Sickbay or Engineering, they were in the armory/torpedo control room. The force field emitters were set up less than 10 feet from the photon torpedo casings in the rack to Tucker's left. When Tucker attempted to fire the Xindi rifle, and it did not emit a beam, he lowered the weapon from his shoulder and began to study the readout screen on the top of the rifle... while pointing the barrel at the torpedoes. It would have been a real shame if the Xindi weapon had fired, and the force field had deflected the fire into the 3 senior officers in the room, or into the torpedo casings. It would have been a bigger shame if the weapon had discharged into the torpedo casings while Tucker was examinging the readout screen. Even if the torpedo casings are stored without antimatter charges, there are still guidance and engine components that would be difficult, if not impossible to replace quickly. I wonder if all the cargo bays were unavailable for this test? Category:EpisodesCategory:Enterprise